Primaries show Florida is not the South

Florida borders on Alabama and is within spitin’ distance of Mississippi, but the Republican presidential primaries show that in political terms the Sunshine State is nowhere near the South.

Primaries in these three states also demonstrated the power of Super PAC spending and TV attack ads.

Romney easily won Florida’s Jan. 31 primary but finished third in Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday.

He overwhelmed his rivals in Florida with 13,000 ads, while the Super PAC backing him spent nearly $11 million. He won with 46 percent of the vote, followed by Newt Gingrich with 32 percent and Rick Santorum 13 percent.

Romney could not devote the same time and money to each state once the primaries started coming in quick succession.

He got less than a third of the vote on Tuesday: 30 percent in Mississippi and 29 percent in Alabama. Santorum won each state – with 33 percent in Mississippi and 34.5 percent in Alabama -- followed closely by Gingrich.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who was born in Michigan, called these Southern primaries “an away game.” Florida, where the electorate reflects a cross-section of the eastern half of the country, was more like a home game for him.

The results in Mississippi and Alabama also showed that Romney is not favored by conservative-Christian voters who tend to dominate the Deep South. This won’t matter much if he is the nominee, because these reliably Republican states are not going vote for President Obama.

The results in all three states, however, show fragmentation among Republicans this year, with conservatives still wary of Romney. The front-runner will have to spend the next few months shoring up his conservative base during a time when nominees-to-be are usually turning toward the center of the political spectrum to attract independent votes.

That’s why the results in Mississippi and Alabama are troubling to Romney.